170. The S-Rank Dungeon (II)

Zane hit the water face-first. For a moment he was swamped in freezing darkness. Then the charms kicked in and he could breathe. He could see in the murk too, if barely.

He saw the Monsters in flesh. Translucent skin swaddling bony ribcages glowing eerie white. Blind pale eyes and giant needles for teeth. These were things dragged out from the darkness, things that could only belong to the deep sea.

Electric Laws crackled on those spearlike teeth…

𝔹𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕕 𝔻𝕣𝕒𝕘𝕠𝕟𝕗𝕚𝕤𝕙 (𝕄𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣)

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟟𝟞

𝔹𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕕 𝔻𝕣𝕒𝕘𝕠𝕟𝕗𝕚𝕤𝕙 (𝕄𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣)

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟟𝟠

𝔹𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕕 𝔻𝕣𝕒𝕘𝕠𝕟𝕗𝕚𝕤𝕙 (𝕄𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣)

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟠𝟚

They swarmed him instantly, hissing and spitting jagged white arcs—

And Zane responded.

His fist caught Stormfire.

These waters aggravated his Fire. It bucked wild. It wanted to spread freely, to eat everything, to swallow the whole ocean if it could. But then it'd be spread too thin.

He needed concentrated blasts. Frowning, he wrestled it down. It felt like bringing some great stallion to heel.

In that time the beasts were almost on him—so close the brilliant blue light of Stormfire glistened off those dense forests of teeth.

Zane stomped down a Stormfire Step.

There was an explosion at his feet and it was like he'd been blasted out of a cannon. At the same time he punched out. And caught a Dragonfish just as it was opening its mouth.

Its snout crushed in with a resounding CRACK!

And an utterly overwhelming force tore straight through its body.

All those teeth shattered at once. Crinkling crackling sounds echoing through the murk—then the skull, the neck, shattering, exploding—it felt like crushing a tin can. The beast barely had time to realize what was going on before an incredible pain exploded up its face.

The whole front half of its body got pushed straight in—

And exploded. Blasting blood and gore and Law and Stormfire everywhere too, swallowing it all up…

The second Dragonfish was still coming from his flank. Narrowing his eyes, he whirled around. And fed it his right hand.

BOOM!

The Monster detonated like a grenade. But rather than fire it spewed blood; its bones made the shrapnel. Quickly swallowed up by Stormfire, crumbling to nothing. The blast was so forceful it spun those massive currents all around it the other way.

Zane had stopped paying much attention to his stats. But he did notice them quietly ticking up in the background. His Strength had gotten well into the 200s, which was a great deal higher than anyone he knew. He was pretty sure only Eze was anywhere close.

It wasn't just the Stormfire doing the work—there was a lot of raw force there too. It seemed he'd gotten so powerful even Level 170 Beasts couldn't last a single blow.

But the third Dragonfish was still swooping in behind—and Zane couldn't turn in time.

Its huge jaw unhinged. And it crunched straight into him, trying to split him in two.

Hundreds of teeth sharp enough to pierce max-Grade Spirit Steel stabbed into his chest, his abs, his arms, his back…

And met a hard wall of flesh.

Zane snorted.

He grabbed one jaw. Grabbed the other. Grunted and flexed his whole body in one violent burst.

He wrenched the beast's mouth wide open. So fast POP-POP-POPs rattled down its face as bones shattered, dislocating, wrenched out of their sockets. The jaw unhinged from the rest of its body, dangling uselessly…

Zane roared. Gave one last fierce tear and ripped those chunks straight out its skull. Blood fountained everywhere. It kept blasting him with reams of lightning and essence and Law—

It couldn't do a thing.

He raised those torn-off jaws up high. And slammed them right over the Dragonfish's head.

His makeshift weapon shattered instantly.

So did the Monster's skull, caving all the way in—and blood erupted in the water. It went limp, crushed utterly.

Then it was just Zane there, panting, looking around at his handiwork. A sea of dark blood, quickly going to essence...

That was a good warm-up. It got his heart going.

𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟝𝟠 -> 𝟙𝟝𝟡

He did notice, though—even when his Stormfire got loose—it wasn't erasing whole lakes of water at a time, like in the Asura Hell Array. The Laws here were too dense for that. And if really sensed, he thought he could pick up the faintest hint of a water Concept working in the background, weaving it all together…

He swam back to the ship, leaped up, and landed in a crouch on the deck still dripping wet. He brushed a stray lock of hair out of his face.

He nodded to the captain and the crew, who were still busy gaping at him. "Let's go."

They snapped out of it. "Y-yes, Savage Sage sir!"

He noticed Reina watching him. She looked pleased.

"Awesome!" said Evan.

Avery was studying him thoughtfully. "Hey does being shirtless give you a power buff or something?"

"…"

***

"This is as far as we can take you," said Captain Hashimoto.

They'd stopped at the edge of that endless dark splotch.

They were all fully healed with their underwater charms ready. Reina did one last double-check.

"Let's do it!" cried Evan. "Go Team Luminous Faction!"

Evan was still quite nervous, but he wasn't hide-under-the-bed nervous anymore before these raids, Zane noticed. Evan had gotten a lot better at that since they'd first met; he was a little excited even.

Zane could feel why. It was because Avery and Reina and Zane were there. Evan was going on an adventure with his friends, and nothing made him happier.

And after Titansteel—like with Reina—he seemed to have gotten it in his head that even if he was in danger, Zane wouldn't let anything really bad happen to him. So he'd be okay.

Even Avery was feeling that way, he realized, looking around… He scratched his head. It was quite a lot to put on one guy, now that he thought about it.

But it didn't feel heavy to Zane. He was happy he could make them feel safe. He promised himself he would take care of them.

A few seconds later, they splashed in.

This water felt a little different. Zane couldn't put his finger on it until they got a few dozen feet deep. He didn't notice it himself but in everyone around him. It seemed to take some extra force for Avery and Evan and Reina to power through it.

There was a sense of lingering pressure here, like an invisible blanket pressing down on them... it'd probably only get worse as they got deeper.

Soon—

𝕐𝕠𝕦 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕖𝕕 𝔻𝕦𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕠𝕟: ℂ𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔸𝕓𝕪𝕤𝕤 (𝕊)

ℂ𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖 ℂ𝕠𝕟𝕕𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟: ℂ𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕣 𝔽𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕣 𝟜 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕊𝕝𝕒𝕪 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔽𝕚𝕟𝕒𝕝 𝔹𝕠𝕤𝕤

𝕐𝕠𝕦 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕖𝕕:

𝔽𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕣 𝟙, 𝔹𝕒𝕥𝕙𝕪𝕒𝕝 ℤ𝕠𝕟𝕖

𝕋𝕠 ℙ𝕣𝕠𝕘𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕤:

𝕊𝕝𝕒𝕪 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔻𝕣𝕒𝕘𝕠𝕟𝕗𝕚𝕤𝕙 ℚ𝕦𝕖𝕖𝕟

(𝟘/𝟙)

The dungeon was shaped like a sinkhole, funneling narrower and narrower the deeper it got.

It only got darker too. This first zone was shrouded in an eerie bluish-greenish-haze, fading as they sank lower. Soon the light above barely helped, like stars glimmering in the distance.

Evan threw up his sword. It radiated strong Laws of Light, dispelling the darkness. It felt like they'd all stepped into the mouth of a cave. There was no sense of direction here—even the mini-map wasn't much help. There were no walls other than the barnacled craggy rim…

"One sec!" Avery closed her eyes. Spread out her senses...

"Ohhh boy," she said a second later. "Whew that's a lot of big ones! Uhhh. Let's not go to the middle. Yeah—let's stay around the edge for now..."

She started swimming for the rim. Most of the treasures seemed here, she explained. The middle was a "real clusterfuck," according to her. Not good.

It was out of the scope of Zane's mini-map. But he could see the edge of it. Just a wall of a splotch of sheer red. There must be dozens of Monsters crammed in that little chunk alone.

"So here's what I'm thinking. We'll go around the edge first, snag all the treasures, then take out the middle," said Avery.

"That sounds reasonable," said Reina, nodding. "Lead on."

Avery and Zane took the front.

The sides of the Abyss were like the walls of a canyon. Riddled with barnacles and glowing bacteria and sea grasses poking out beneath the slate-gray crags.

A few Level 170 Giant Crabs roamed around, clacking at them. But when one got close, Zane shattered its shell and head and legs—all with a single punch. He flared out his aura and his soul, radiating his intent.

The rest stayed well away after that.

They soon came across their first yellow dot, buried in the rim wall.

𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕜𝕖𝕟 𝔾𝕣𝕠𝕥𝕥𝕠 (𝕊)

𝔸 𝕘𝕣𝕠𝕥𝕥𝕠 𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕞𝕖𝕕 𝕒𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕙𝕠𝕣𝕟 𝕠𝕗 𝕒 𝕗𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕟 𝔽𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝔻𝕣𝕒𝕘𝕠𝕟, 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕡𝕝𝕒𝕔𝕖 𝕟𝕒𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕪 𝕒𝕔𝕔𝕦𝕞𝕦𝕝𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕤 𝕒𝕟 𝕖𝕩𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕞𝕖 𝕒𝕞𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕥 𝕠𝕗 𝕎𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕃𝕒𝕨. 𝔸𝕟𝕪 𝕤𝕥𝕦𝕕𝕪 𝕠𝕗 𝕎𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕚𝕥𝕤 ℂ𝕠𝕟𝕔𝕖𝕡𝕥𝕤 𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖 𝕨𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕓𝕖 𝕘𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕝𝕪 𝕒𝕔𝕔𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕕.

Avery marked the place down as a future napping spot once they cleared the place. They moved on.

Soon they came across a second treasure area, fit snug in a crack in the wall. It was far bigger than the first—it seemed bigger than any that showed up on their mini-map. Dozens of little yellow dots clustered inside of it.

It was guarded by Monsters that looked like submarines from a distance. Submarines dangling giant pale nets—they turned out to be…

ℂ𝕠𝕝𝕠𝕤𝕤𝕦𝕤 ℂ𝕦𝕥𝕥𝕝𝕖𝕗𝕚𝕤𝕙 (𝕄𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣)

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟟𝟜

This time, Zane turned his meteor hammers on them. They whipped out like torpedoes. The blast quaked the walls, throwing loose mounds of rock and dust. It flashed so bright it felt like it lit up half the floor…

The light faded fast. And Zane and crew inspected their rewards.

The crack led down a path, which led to a little cozy cavern. They knew they were about to get something good just by the atmosphere. The air was so rich with essence it felt like stepping into an A-rank Essence Geyser.

They made their way in.

There, growing in batches dozens of feet tall, were five thick stalks of deep green kelp, so rich with essence they lit up the little cavern. Each was an S-ranked treasure, and simply named—'Deep Sea Kelp.' The name was plain, but the treasure was anything but.

They harvested the lot of them and started munching. They were incredibly juicy; they tasted lightly salty. But otherwise kind of like fish.

These things were so much essence Zane had never felt anything like it. It just exploded in his mouth. Reina decided they could all do with sitting here for a bit and buffing themselves up before going on.

Zane had barely gotten through a quarter of a stalk when—

𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟝𝟡 -> 𝟙𝟞𝟘

About an hour of munching later…

𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟞𝟘 -> 𝟙𝟞𝟙

He finished his stalk.

𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟞𝟙 -> 𝟙𝟞𝟚

Reina and Evan and Avery were at lower Levels, so they improved a great deal faster. Avery was up to the mid-140s now, Reina the low 150s. Evan was nearly caught up with Zane, but that was because of his Leveling talent as much as anything.

It was collectively decided Zane should get the last stalk. Avery said they should feed Zane most of the essence treasures anyway since they needed him big and fluffy as a meat shield. Reina agreed wholeheartedly but for different reasons. Evan would have given Zane his first stalk if they hadn't made him take it.

So Zane sat there and munched for a bit longer. In the meantime Evan started babbling excitedly about video game lore to Reina and Avery. Reina listened and nodded and asked questions politely. Avery tried staying awake but fell asleep within three minutes.

𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟞𝟚 -> 𝟙𝟞𝟛

𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟞𝟛 -> 𝟙𝟞𝟜

After that they carried on scouring out the outer rim. It went a few miles in total—there was a lot of treasure to clean up.

Most seemed guarded by some sea Monster, a mini-Boss of sorts. The next one was the Oyster King, a Level 178 beast. It was a giant spiky clam spitting icicles—until Zane walked up and smashed it.

Then they picked up the S-rank treasure inside. It was called the 'Pearl of Wisdom,' and it let you recover a ton faster so long as you held it. Reina said they could use it to power Zane's soul sauna back in the dojo.

The next one was guarded by a trio of Dragonfish which Zane easily blasted. It yielded a set of gorgeous deep-blue armor, intricately welded.

ℝ𝕒𝕚𝕟 𝔻𝕣𝕒𝕘𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕔𝕒𝕝𝕖 𝔸𝕣𝕞𝕠𝕣 (𝕊)

𝔽𝕠𝕣𝕘𝕖𝕕 𝕓𝕪 𝔸𝕡𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕚𝕔𝕖 𝕄𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣 ℕ𝕠𝕣𝕚 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕊𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕝𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕥 ℂ𝕠𝕟𝕔𝕝𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝟙𝟘𝕥𝕙 𝕄𝕖𝕘𝕒𝕟𝕟𝕦𝕞, 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕠𝕟𝕖-𝕠𝕗-𝕒-𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕕 𝕤𝕖𝕥 𝕨𝕒𝕤 𝕔𝕣𝕒𝕗𝕥𝕖𝕕 𝕗𝕣𝕠𝕞 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕕𝕣𝕠𝕡𝕡𝕖𝕕 𝕤𝕔𝕒𝕝𝕖𝕤 𝕠𝕗 𝕒 𝕤𝕝𝕒𝕚𝕟 ℝ𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕣𝕒𝕘𝕠𝕟.

It was a full set, which went to Avery since she held the front with Zane.

They carried on happily looting...